Justice Alex Bryner was born in China in 1943 to Russian immigrant parents and grew up in Menlo Park, California. He earned a law degree from Stanford University in 1969. He came to Alaska in 1969, first serving as a law clerk for Alaska Supreme Court Chief Justice, George Boney, then worked in Anchorage as a public defender, in private practice, as a district court judge, as the US Attorney for Alaska, and in 1980 was appointed to the state’s newly formed Court of Appeals. He served as the first Chief Judge of the Court of Appeals from 1980 to 1997. In 1997, he was appointed to the Alaska Supreme Court where he served until his retirement in 2007. He continues to work in private practice in Anchorage.